Philippe Apeloig makes his return to Tokyo at Ginza Graphic Gallery

Philippe Apeloig’s new show at Tokyo’s Ginza Graphic Gallery marks a full circle for the Parisian designer. Almost twenty years ago in 1998, Apeloig presented ‘Posters in the context of French Culture’ – first at the DNP Duo Dojima (DDD) Gallery in Osaka, and then at the Ginza Graphic Gallery in Tokyo. Curated by the late Japanese graphic master Ikko Tanaka, who passed away just four years later in 2002, the exhibition showcased a poster designed by Apeloig that received the Gold Award from the Tokyo Type Director Club in 1995.

The name of the new show ‘Apeloi-g-g-g’ – is a nod to the Ginza Graphic Gallery’s ggg acronym that was immortalized in a logotype created by Tanaka. ‘I thought it made a lot of sense to connect my name to his logotype. It’s a kind of homage to him,’ reflects Apeloig, who continues to be inspired by Japan. ‘And I like that it echoes the repetition that you see in my work also.’

The new survey follows on from three important solo shows from Apeloig – his retrospective, Typorama, at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris (2013); Using Type, a solo exhibition focused on his typographic posters, at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (2015); and TypoApeloig at Cité du Livre in Aix-en-Provence, a show that examined the Apeloig’s poster designs (2014).

Displayed across the ground floor and the basement of the Ginza Graphic Gallery, the show in Tokyo brings together Apeloig’s recent forays into product and packaging; a line of porcelain for La Manufacture de Sèvres (https://www.wallpaper.com/design/philippe-apeloig-plate-designs-for-la-manufacture-de-sevres), a scarf and watch for Hermès, and packaging designs for Issey Miyake Parfums – a trio of 3D projects that Apeloig says came along ‘by chance’.

‘I wanted to show the different ways in which graphic design can be used,’ explains Apeloig of the new exhibition. ‘Not only on printed matter like posters and books but also on objects packaging and ceramics.’

Split into two, half of the basement space is given over to the designer’s motion graphic pieces, which are projected onto a vast screen that spans the entire wall. In the other half, a series of books and brochures occupy one wall, while six posters showcase Apeloig’s bespoke fonts. Another three posters are portraits of writers Philip Roth, Kenzaburo Oé and Mario Vargas Losa, and a fourth is a blue portrait of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, which Apeloig designed for the Yves Saint Laurent retrospective at the Petit Palais, Paris in 2010.

Upstairs on the ground floor, Apeloig’s Issey Miyake packaging is displayed in a series of illuminated recessed alcoves that glow in the exhibition’s darkness.

‘Issey Miyake was the most commercial project that I’ve ever done but it didn’t forfeit my creativity, not at all,’ says Apeloig, who took the fragrance’s streamlined bottle silhouette and transformed it into a set of geometric letters that he describes as ‘playful forms, dancing in movement’.

‘It’s a very abstract design,’ continues Apeloig, ‘Movement is at the center of my work. As you understand modern dance was perhaps the entrance door for me to the contemporary approach in art and design. Fist of all by watching performances. I still think that today I kept this magical choreography as a most influence in my work, as one can see in the motion graphic pieces that I present today.’

Opposite the packaging, the ceramic plates for La Manufacture de Sèvres – featuring minimalist patterns that nod to Japanese artist Hokusai – are exhibited like artworks on the wall alongside Apeloig’s numerous dynamic posters that specifically feature landscapes, scenery and architecture crafted from type.

To complete the showcase, Apeloig worked with American art critic Steven Hellers on a 64-page catalogue printed in Japanese and English. A quote from Heller on its cover reads, ‘Apeloig is always totally and unreservedly Apeloig, the purveyor of typographic exquisiteness’ – a perfect sentence to sum up this exhibition that demonstrates Apeloig’s innate ability to apply his distinctive graphic style to whichever medium he touches.